N - 08.12.2005 19:17
"Massive protests have delayed the start of work on a 33-mile tunnel under the Alps between France and Italy planned as a key link in a trans-Europe rail line.
The demonstration mixed environmental activists with residents of the Val di Susa on the border between the two countries, the Times of London reported. In Venaus, the tunnel's Italian end, the newspaper said that almost every house sports a "No TAV" sign, using the project's Italian acronym.
The proposed rail line would connect Lisbon with Kiev.
Opponents of the tunnel say 300 high-speed trains a day would destroy a peaceful mountain area and damage the environment. They are especiallly opposed to a shorter secondary tunnel under Mount Musine, a place said to be where the Emperor Constantine saw a cross in the sky and also associated with Celtic rituals."
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"Protesters, who say the so-called TAV project may release harmful deposits of asbestos in the mountains, repeatedly clashed with police this week, blocking roads and railways near Turin and covering the city's building with graffiti like "No to the high-speed train, No to the Olympics."
"The Olympics are not for or against the TAV. They are just two problems that coincide," the head of the organising committee, Valentino Castellani, told Corriere della Sera daily."
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